


Forged in Smoke and Fire

by RougueShadowWolf



Series: 15 Minutes [229]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Burn Victim Stiles Stilinski, Evil Kate Argent, F/M, Past Kate Argent/Derek Hale, Sheriff Stilinski Dies, Sheriff Stilinski Saved The Hale's, The Hale Fire (Teen Wolf), Warning: Kate Argent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 07:26:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20689730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RougueShadowWolf/pseuds/RougueShadowWolf
Summary: They could’ve all died, the fire could’ve burned them all, leaving behind only Laura and Derek to weep over their charred bones if it hadn’t been for Deputy Stilinski. It felt like a cruel twist of fate that while not a single Hale was lost that night, the life of the good deputy ended in smoke and fire. The tragedy of that night was made that much grater not only because a child was orphaned that night, but because said child ran into the burning building after his father when no one else noticed that the deputy hadn’t escaped the blaze with the family he’d rescued.





	Forged in Smoke and Fire

**Author's Note:**

> There’s no harm in reading an ancient scroll, you said. No harm at all, you said. Well, your curiosity just had to awaken the ancient dragons. Yes, they are magnificent when they aren’t burning down village and farmlands. They are pretty impressive if you are fireproof, however, humans aren’t fireproof! And we’re humans!
> 
> Alright, here we go once more. I shall ask all who are familiar with this series to head on down to A Change since you all know what this series is and thus knows the usual warnings I would give; now, however if you aren’t familiar with the series call 15Minutes, then please stay with me and learn what you’ve stumbled upon since it might serve you well to do so. 
> 
> 15Minutes is a series of stories written by me, RougueShadowWolf (bowing deeply and respectfully here), and each tale is a small payment to my hagraven friends who delight at my misery. Each story is written as the name might suggest within the timespan of 15minutes, there are no timeouts, no ability to gain more time during, and so whatever is created during this time will be handed out to the Hagravens once the one called Brittle bones declares that time is up and done. The storytelling is chaotic, panicked and you’ll find bad grammar here and typos that if turned to coins would make me oh so wealthy, and thus I shall request that those unable to handle bad writing leave now and be merry; however, if you dare continue on this path, still thirsting to read my story, then follow me to A Change for there is still a lot to learn.
> 
> A CHANGE has come to play in our little series, a theme of sorts and for now that theme is Miserable. The ever wicked and cruel UnfriendlyRubyDragonfly has requested a story where Stilinski managed to rescue the Hale’s, but he died as a result of his bravery, and Stiles who had already lost his mom ran into save his dad that night too but obviously failed at it.

The smoke in the air was thick and heavy, making it hard to breathe. The heath radiating from the burning building was far too much, and yet none of them could move too far due to all of their need to stay close to one another, touching and ensuring each other that they were all safe and alive. Huddled together at a safe distance from the fire that had been lit with full intention of ending most of their lives, leaving but Laura and Derek alive to suffer the grief of losing family and pack, words of comfort are whispered and gentle kisses on cheeks and foreheads shared even between Talia and Peter who had been at odds with each other before the hunters arrived.

Thanks to a single man who’d braved the fire to save them all, they’d indeed averted disaster and would not lay a single coffin in the ground and raise a headstone with the name of Hale upon it. They survived due to the bravery of a deputy that Talia felt was still too young, too fresh in his grief to make a good Sheriff in their town.

`Dad! ´ Peter hears the small but none the less loud voice of a child crying out from a distance, and by the way a few others still and go quiet near him, it is clearly that Peter is not the only one who’d heard the shrilling sound of desperation that came from nearby.

Peter can’t help but take another headcount of children and adults, heart hammering with dread until he’s able to say that everyone is there and safe.

Little Cora held tightly by her shaken father who hasn’t let go of her since the fire was lit, and eyes on his mate and wife as if he feared she might disappear at any moment. Derek was hugging Talia like a child who had been close to losing their parent, and Talia held her son tightly whispering soothing words to him even while knowing the part he’d played in all of this. Everyone is there, and everyone is safe, and yet the horrific screams continue.

`Dad! Daddy! ´ the fear Peter can hear in the loud cries, mirrored in greatness that which he’d felt while trapped inside the building that was set alight by those possessing dishonorable hearts.

`Dad! ´ the loud cries continued to ring through the roar of the fire, the genuine desperation of the one screaming was enough to draw the attention of everyone towards a figure that was now heading towards the burning building, running and stumbling its way into the house where Peter and his siblings had been born in and had called their home for many years.

It takes a moment for Peter and the others to realize that the tiny figure that disappeared into what had been Peter’s childhood home was but a child, there’s a part of him that urges him to fetch the child, but there’s also another part of him that firmly tells him to stay with his heavily pregnant wife and their daughter.

Peter’s eyes dart towards the parked vehicle with flashing lights, realizing only now that the deputy that had come to their rescue hadn’t made it out of the building with them.

His heart sinks to the ground when he catches sight of a tiny backpack on the ground, spilling out of the batman themed backpack were a familiar set of books that his niece Cora often threw around when the homework she’d been designed became too much. There’s a tiny one-armed teddy bear peeking out from inside the backpack that hadn’t been closed properly, and the sight is a sorry one even before Peter realizes the meaning behind it all.

There’s a faint whisper of sirens in the night, approaching fast but not fast enough to save the house or the deputy and child.

`We have to do something. ´ Peter hears someone yell, but no one not even Peter is willing to run back into the building that was being devoured right before their very eyes, his burns were healing slowly and pain reached down into his bones and the thought of just running into the hell before them was enough to render him motionless with fear. 

Standing there, in the safety of the outside, Peter and the others with enhanced hearing could hear the little boy continue to cry, to yell for its father, the roaring fire and the creaks and groans of the building muffling only so much of the child who had made the only move to safe Deputy Stilinski.

Yet, although they could hear the moment the boy found his father, could hear him cough and scream for help between the moments he begged and pleaded for his father to wake-up, to get up, none of them made a move to rescue the child or its father.

Fear had them bound.

Never before had Peter wished he hadn’t been born a werewolf, since he could hear the way the child began to choke on the smoke, which was only made worse when the child finally coughs and gasps himself into silence.

Standing there uselessly waiting for someone with the proper gear and training to handle the horror of a house fire, no, an arson, Peter_ feels_ like the worst sort of coward as he hears the once rapid heart begin to slow and then stutter to an ungraceful stop.

There’s a child dying inside what had been his childhood home, and all Peter is doing is just stand there holding his wife and daughter close while displaying a level of spinelessness that is positively sickening.

Once one of the first firetrucks comes to a heavy stop near Peter’s own parked car, he hears his brother-in-law who was still holding his niece quickly inform the brave men and women come to battle the fire that there’s a man and a child trapped inside the building, which is so much more than Peter has done. The news that there are still people trapped inside appears to spark some level of emergency in the firemen and women, more so once they realize who the people are.

Peter watches with an uneasy heart as the first set of men or women, possibly both, hurry into the building.

Peter honestly doesn’t expect the father and child to survive the fire, the smoke alone was a killer. With a very grim outlook on things regarding the deputy and his young child, Peter does not think twice about joining his wife and child in the ambulance and thus leaving the site before there is any news on the father and son.

The dead remained dead regardless of what you did, right?

~*~

Hair still damp from the fifth-shower he’d managed to squeeze into the ten hours that had passed since the hunters attempt at burning him and his family alive had failed, but even after five-showers and clean clothes, Peter could still smell the stench of fire and smoke and burned flesh which is why he simply cannot sleep.

Peter feels on edge, not simply because of the smell of the horror he and his family had survived stuck to his skin. He feels uneasy, not because his wife and daughter are still at the hospital for observation, or because of the strange looks he’d been given with most members of his family when they came out of the fire with not a burn to show for it.

Although his wife and daughter were still at the hospital, he’d opted like most members of his family to leave the hospital in great need of a shower, not to mention clean clothes and what little food anyone could managed to eat; Cora had of course been delighted when for once she was allowed to eat as much ice cream as she wanted, Peter hadn’t managed to eat a single bite of food but had managed to drink a couple of bottles of water.

They’d managed to all get housed in one of the better Hotels in town, which gave them a safe place to begin to make plans for their future; such as rebuilding, which meant contacting a trusted architect and lawyers.

At one-point Peter and his brother had taken charge of calling friends and families to inform them everyone was safe and sound, and not to worry. Laura hadn’t calmed down until she’d talked to bother her parents and her siblings, and Peter’s mother-in-law had threatened to come to Beacon Hills if her daughter didn’t call her first-thing in the morning.

Peter frowns at the TV, the news of the tragic fire that claimed the life of a newly widowed deputy would’ve been enough to hit the news since tragedy and violence sold, as did acts of heroism more so if it ended with the hero dead, and so he wasn’t too surprised by the way more and more news stations picked-up the story of Deputy Noah Stilinski.

Of course, the fact that Deputy Stilinski was a widower with a young son simply made the story far more delicious, but once the news stations caught wind that the son of the brave deputy was found holding on to his father in a manner which suggested he’d been trying to drag his father to safety, well, the story spread far and wide.

A brave little boy, was the way everyone now described young boy who had unfortunately been landed with a name that was butchered for at least a day until someone finally realized the boy was called Stiles by most people who knew him, frankly everyone was surprised to learn that Stiles wasn’t his real name.

Hearing over and over again, some woman or man with a fake expression sympathy parrot the information that young Stiles Stilinski was now orphaned began to grate at Peter’s nerves before an hour of channel surfing was over.

What had Peter throwing the remote controller at the TV was when hearing people talk about the boy like he was dead, when minutes before they’d said the boy was in hospital still fighting for his life, it felt to him like the media was just trying to milk every-single-drop out of Stiles’ misfortune.

It was while he watched the newsfeed, almost religiously, that Peter decided to do something to at least secure the child with enough fortune that he would never have to worry about medical bills or rebuilding his life once he was old-enough to do so.

~*~

Peter is almost half-an-hour late when he enters the small room where the parole hearing for Kate Argent was being held, this is the second-one in fourteen-years he’s attended, and he will continue to put on the breaks on her possible parole for as long as it takes to ensure the bitch rots away in one of the worst prisons.

He’s already in a bad mood due to delayed flights and horrible traffic that made him unable to be around to support his nephew as he voiced his protests against Kate Argent’s possible parole, sure, there were other members of their family there but it was the principal of the matter and all that.

Walking straight to where his now sickly pale nephew sits, clinging tightly to Laura’s hand. Peter glares at Kate who does her best to pretend all remorseful where she stands, reading a weak ass statement of lies, gone are the days when she’d called the deputy and his son the necessary casualties of war, but regardless of what Kate says now he sees nothing but sick amusement in her eyes; the bitch appears convinced that she’ll be paroled, which convinces Peter that some money had exchanged hands or one of the men or women on the board was a hunter, possibly more than one which shouldn’t surprise him.

Taking his seat next to Derek, Peter gently squeezes Derek’s shoulder and reminds his shaken nephew to breathe which Derek does rather loudly, Talia isn’t there today due to her Alpha duties but her husband is as is her youngest daughter, both glaring at Kate like she was the devil himself incarnated.

Kate has just finished her disingenuous apology tour when the door through which Peter had arrived but twenty or so minutes ago opens, drawing the attention away from Kate and her lawyer.

There’s no mistaking the young man for any other that Stiles Stilinski, even without the uneven patch of marred skin climbing up the long neck and all the way up the right side of his face, these scars and the disfigured ear that required a hearing aid all screamed loud and clear of the tragedy that had played-out almost fifteen-years ago. There’s no doubt of the identity of the young man who still introduced to the parole board as Stiles Stilinski by Whittemore, the very prosecutor who had helped send Kate Argent away, and Peter watches as Kate turns to glare at the young man.

It might’ve been over a decaed since Peter had seen the child who ran into a burning building to try and rescue his father, a man who’d died saving Peter’s family from a most horrific of deaths, but the eyes and the nose and everything else about the boy had changed to a degree but not enough to make him unrecognizable for Peter who had been overly invested in the well-being of the boy for the first-four years of his life.

Peter can tell immediately by one look at the parole board who of these men and women might have ties to the Argents, since everyone but one steals a glance over at the boy and their eyes are so very revealing.

When the story broke about the tragic fate of the brave little boy the degree of sympathy it drew from many was great, when the news broke the child was orphaned offers to adopt him had started to pour-in, some more genuine than others that only sought to ride on the fame of the tragedy and a few hoping to do better their tarnished images in public by adopting the child who’d swiftly become Americas favorite tragic hero.

Breathing in a shaky breath, Peter focuses on the young-man who continued to need the support of a cane, but had otherwise recovered leaps and bounds from the damage the fire had done to him. The large service dog appeared focused on its duties as it navigated the young man to the spot directed for him by the man who had sent Kate away, the dog takes a seat without being directed as soon as its master does and continues to watch young Stilinski through the ordeal.

Peter had visited the child back when no-one knew whether or not the child would make it, he’d brought the much-loved teddy but due to risks of infection the toy hadn’t been at first allowed into the room. The memory of just how far the damage had extended remained imbedded in Peter’s memories, and even after it was clear the boy would survive and he began to have surgeries the damage had been haunting.

Once Stiles had settled in his chair, the dog sets its heavy looking head upon his lap and with a blank expression Stiles begins to comb his fingers through the dark fur of the dog, the movement of those remaining fingers are stiff but the dog seems satisfied enough by to look of things.

Peter had noticed that Stiles Stilinski hadn’t arrived alone, but it is only when Peter is sure the boy will not disappear that he glances over at the people who had arrived with the boy. There’s a woman old-enough to be the mother of both young Stilinski and the rest of the lot of people who did their best to give Stiles encouraging smiles and looks, between of course glaring murderously at the back of Kate’s head.

Peter is glad to see that the boy who lost his father because of Kate isn’t there alone, that he has a support network for what had to be an incredibly difficult day.

The scent of smoke, pain and burned flesh is no more, the horrors of the hospital and fire now long ago washed away and allowing Peter to find others scents to identify.

Anxiety, yes, the potency of it is displeasing but under the circumstances it was reasonable.

Beneath all the anxiety, the hint of cinnamon whispered through, and once it did Peter caught other delicate little whispering scents that made him think of Christmas in his childhood home, but also crispy autumns morning with promise of winter in the air, there was a hint of apple blossoms and the woods in spring. All the four seasons appeared to have carved themselves a space in what was Stiles most peculiar scent which was peculiar, and delightful. 

It takes him a moment to realize that Derek has gone completely relaxed beside him, and he’s not the only one that has noticed who his nephew just sinks into his seat like it was but a couch back home, eyes closed and breathing in slowly and deeply. Laura and Peter exchange a questioning look before their attention is drawn to the young man who was ready to speak.

**Author's Note:**

> Alrighty, some small details or information or ideas, whatever you’d like to call them is on the way, so buckle-up my pretties. 
> 
> After the fire, a lot of people wanted to adopt Stiles, and Peter even thought about it and did try and convince his wife it would be the best and right thing to do, but she put her foot down and said no; she didn’t want their children to have to grow-up with Stiles and possibly traumatized forever by his injuries. Talia and her husband had given adopting him some thought too, but then felt it might not be the best thing for Stiles or Derek, not to mention they worried that Stiles would grow-up resenting them for what had happened. 
> 
> Gerard Argent trying to show he’s not a bad man (yeah, that’s not happening old-man) even made an attempt to adopt the boy, but his age was a problem and so pressured Victoria and Chris to give it a go; and Chris did feel enough guilt for Kate’s part in Stiles becoming an orphan that he would’ve done anything to lessen it, and if adopting him and making sure he was taken care of and safe would do that, then why not. But Kate’s shadow was too grate, and the backlash that followed this attempt soon had them backing the heck out of it all, to the great frustration of Gerard Argent who’d had plans for Stiles. 
> 
> The Whittemore’s ended-up adopting Stiles, Mr. Whittemore spent so much time on the case and was so focused on Stiles during that time period that he couldn’t just not make sure the boy would be safe and happy, and his wife might’ve been a little bit uneasy about it since she was happy with just Jackson but eventually caved in; not that she hasn’t grown to love Stiles, because she as and would protect him as fiercely as she would protect Jackson. Mr. Whittemore has been fighting for years to make sure Kate stays locked-up, he fought like a rabid dog to ensure Kate stay locked-up. 
> 
> Now, Jackson wasn’t thrilled with his parents adopting Stiles, and resented him a bit, but then Danny sort of pointed out how it wasn’t Stiles choice just like Jackson hadn’t chosen to be adopted either, and it wasn’t right for Jackson to blame Stiles for something he had no power over. Eventually Jackson also realizes that like himself, Stiles too was orphaned, but unlike him Jackson everyone knew what had happened to Stiles, denying Stiles the chance to liv without being marked by adoption the way Jackson was and that made their relationship shift. Jackson became protective of his adopted brother, and if anyone, be it an older-kid laughed or made fun of Stiles, or called him ugly or called him Freddy Krueger, then Jackson would reshape their nose. You don’t mess with his brother, no matter how big you are.


End file.
